Letter to the editor

Over the past six months La Jolla has been afflicted by a debate over whether community leaders should impose paid parking on the Village. While people of good conscience can differ on the merits of paid street parking, I strongly object to the tactics employed by parking meter advocates, including repeated false and personal attacks directed at my business. Those favoring meters attempt to discount my objections through public and hurtful proclamations that range from the accusation that Warwick’s contributes to the parking problems in the Village to statements that we do not give back to the community. It is simply too generous for me to suggest that these people are speaking out of ignorance.

These are the facts. I have 41 employees, full-time and part-time. On any given weekday we average 22 employees, with a smaller weekend staff. The store purchases 13 parking passes a month from PLJ, which are provided, at no cost, to the full-time employees who drive to work on the weekdays. An additional 11 employees arrive by other means.

On any given day, about four employees are required to park in the residential neighborhoods. No one parks in the limited-time spaces. This practice “to protect community parking for customers” has been a Warwick’s practice that goes back to my childhood.

Not only do the meter advocates mischaracterize my policies, they cynically suggest that I am callous to community causes and am indifferent to efforts to draw customers to La Jolla. In fact, the store actively promotes the community, advertising regularly on public radio and in the Union-Tribune. We average two (free) evening events a week, showcasing notable authors, politicians and celebrities which attract people from all over San Diego. I particularly resent the accusation that the store gives nothing back to the community. I invite those who have made such accusations to find out about our “Year of Giving.”

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So, next time a parking proponent spins a yarn, please remember, their “facts” are often fiction.

Although those in attendance at the new Safe, Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative (SHNI) meeting Sept. 4 in the La Jolla Library were seeking local solutions to the homelessness they’ve observed in their neighborhoods, they were met instead with broader City- and County-wide resources that address the varied facets of this very complex issue.

Sitting at the Brick & Bell coffee shop in La Jolla Shores on Sept. 4 with local residents Sandra Munson and Tim Johnson as they catch up over iced teas, one would never know that just three weeks prior, the two were undergoing surgery so Munson could donate a kidney to Johnson.